While becoming a piano virtuoso or learning to code might be a touch too ambitious a skill to master during lockdown, brushing up on your champagne expertise seems a lot more manageable and fun. As Marlene Dietrich said, ‘Champagne makes you feel like it’s Sunday and better days are just around the corner’, so there can be no better time than now to indulge in a bit of self improvement with an added glass of champagne.

For oenophiles with a desire to refine their tasting abilities, or just those looking for a good reason to drink more champagne, the Comité Champagne has launched an online course, MOOC. The Comité Champagne represents the region’s 16,000 growers and 340 houses and has created MOOC for wine enthusiasts and students, as well as sommeliers and merchants to help broaden the world’s knowledge of the wine, its history and character.

The course includes modules on serving and tasting champagne, the diversity of the wines, how to pair champagne with food, the production process and terroir, producers’ commitment to the environment and sustainability, the history of the wine, and the economics of production. The course features lessons and advice from Master of Wine Jérémy Cukierman, as well as producers and growers from the region.

There is a free classic version but anyone serious about champagne will want to access the premium course, which comes with extra instruction and tests as well as a MOOC certificate of completion.

The MOOC course is €49, runs for five hours and is available at champagne-mooc.com.

Comité Champagne has also created a 360-degree virtual reality tour of the region’s hillsides, vineyards, houses and cellars for anyone experiencing wanderlust and who wants to travel without leaving their sofa. It’s available most effectively as a smartphone app. Visit 360.champagne.fr to find out more.